This is most definitely an attempt to return to the franchise's roots with a smaller scale story and some Continuity Nod moments to the first movie. It is no longer a science-fantasy epic about interstellar conflicts and The Chosen One who was prophesied to defeat the Big Bad, but is instead a more personal story about Riddick returning to the savage outlaw that he used to be and some of the aftermath of the first movie.
The plot itself has three distinct acts, each with it's own genre:
First, we have a Robinsonade plot In SPACE, with Riddick stranded on a hostile world, severely wounded and fighting to survive while trying to regain his badassery, some of which he thinks he has lost. This is inter-cut with some flashbacks which explain how he got there from the end of the last movie. This part drags on a bit too much for my liking. It is shot almost entirely with a jarringly piss-yellow camera filter and progresses very slowly. Other than Riddick's interactions with his new best friend there isn't much of interest here.
Second, comes the Slasher Movie plot, with Riddick as the slasher. It is almost entirely shown from the perspective of two groups of mercenaries who came to the planet for Riddick's head, among other reasons, as he methodically takes them out. During this part we don't get to see much of Riddick at all, only short glimpses and the payoffs of his plan being set in motion. This is by far the most interesting part of the movie because we see what Riddick does, not Riddick himself, and Riddick as a character was never particularly interesting, his badassery on the other hand is cool to watch and that is played very well here.
Third, is Pitch Black 2.0 with darkness and monsters. Except this time, instead of a ragtag bunch of crash survivors + Riddick, it is a group of trained and well-armed mercenaries + Riddick, so the monsters aren't played up to be nearly as scary as the one's in Pitch Black were. In this case they're more like zombies in terms of their purpose in the narrative. This part is about Johnns more than it is about Riddick, everything surrounding the conflict between them is in the center and the monsters are the background to that.
In general I found the movie enjoyable, though I personally would have wanted to see more of the science-fantasy of the second movie but I'm probably in the minority there.
1 Movie, 3 Genres
This is most definitely an attempt to return to the franchise's roots with a smaller scale story and some Continuity Nod moments to the first movie. It is no longer a science-fantasy epic about interstellar conflicts and The Chosen One who was prophesied to defeat the Big Bad, but is instead a more personal story about Riddick returning to the savage outlaw that he used to be and some of the aftermath of the first movie.
The plot itself has three distinct acts, each with it's own genre:
First, we have a Robinsonade plot In SPACE, with Riddick stranded on a hostile world, severely wounded and fighting to survive while trying to regain his badassery, some of which he thinks he has lost. This is inter-cut with some flashbacks which explain how he got there from the end of the last movie. This part drags on a bit too much for my liking. It is shot almost entirely with a jarringly piss-yellow camera filter and progresses very slowly. Other than Riddick's interactions with his new best friend there isn't much of interest here.
Second, comes the Slasher Movie plot, with Riddick as the slasher. It is almost entirely shown from the perspective of two groups of mercenaries who came to the planet for Riddick's head, among other reasons, as he methodically takes them out. During this part we don't get to see much of Riddick at all, only short glimpses and the payoffs of his plan being set in motion. This is by far the most interesting part of the movie because we see what Riddick does, not Riddick himself, and Riddick as a character was never particularly interesting, his badassery on the other hand is cool to watch and that is played very well here.
Third, is Pitch Black 2.0 with darkness and monsters. Except this time, instead of a ragtag bunch of crash survivors + Riddick, it is a group of trained and well-armed mercenaries + Riddick, so the monsters aren't played up to be nearly as scary as the one's in Pitch Black were. In this case they're more like zombies in terms of their purpose in the narrative. This part is about Johnns more than it is about Riddick, everything surrounding the conflict between them is in the center and the monsters are the background to that.
In general I found the movie enjoyable, though I personally would have wanted to see more of the science-fantasy of the second movie but I'm probably in the minority there.